Uber Reserved No Show
 

I reserved an Uber from Westin Riverfront Avon, CO to the Vail/Eagle airport for Saturday morning and it never showed up. Fortunately, an Epic Mountain Express showed up to transport another guest and we were able to use this service to the airport. I never heard anything from Uber regarding this no show and would like to contact them to complain.

Definitely worthy of reaching out. Airport rides which are prescheduled are important. Here is Christopher Elliott's contact link for reaching Uber.

You can also register your complaint directly in the Uber app. Go to help and select the trip (it should be listed if you reserved) and then state that the driver never arrived and what you ending up having to do after the no show.

And this is why I don't use Uber / Lyft for airport runs. Tried it once - booked in advance and then 1/2 an hour before the scheduled pick up time, app said they couldn't find anyone to take the trip (2 hours / $150) and cancelled. You've had ten days to find someone, doesn't the algorithm take that into account? Like most of the modern day gig economy / app offerings everything is designed to assume you live in a city on California with 5 bar high speed data coverage at all times.

Fortunately I was able to find a friend to drive me and I have never since considered Uber or Lyft for trips to an airport unless from a large city center.

I've had this problem mostly with Lyft but also Uber. They know you have to be somewhere so they go for the person who will pay top dollar and ignore your reservation, or they cancel your reservation and offer a ride at a much higher price. That's why I don't use either of them anymore. When Lyft canceled on me, I had to pay $200 to get to the airport in a limo.

Lyft has an airport pickup guarantee and they will pay you $50 quickly and up to $100 when the driver does not show or is late. That’s why I pre-book airport rides with Lyft vs. Uber …

I tried the phone number listed below and it was for drivers only. I tried using the app to contact customer support and all I got was the chat option and there were no topics that listed driver not showing up. I only use Uber occasionally and use it because of my monthly Amex credit, but it is becoming more unreliable and pricing is totally arbitrary. Based on other comments, Lyft doesn't appear to be any better. I plan to contact Amex to complain that this member benefit is becoming useless if Uber can't be trusted.

of course Lyft is better for this with their guarantee …

you can select any nonsense in the chat option to get connected to an agent - don’t try and overthink the chat menu

Is that only for airport pickups? Or is it for pickups from home/business/hotel TO the airport?

Schedule rides to the airport.

From Lyft,com:
Terms here:
https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/all/a...A5NjA5#promise

Got it. Thanks. Not so comforting in the heat of the "I need to get to the airport, where the heck is my Lyft?" moment as you frantically seek out alternative transport. But, helpful

FWIW, regarding rideshares, both Lyft and Uber, from the suburbs north of New York City to 2 NYC airports, JFK and LGA. For several years I’d call a rideshare when I was ready to leave home. Usually the wait times were prolonged and severely underestimated and often the driver would disappear from the app when appearing to be just a minute away from pick up. I was told the last-minute cancellations were because that’s when the driver saw the destination of LGA or JFK and unless the driver had custom Taxi and Limousine Commission license plates, they could not pick up at the airport and thus had to return empty.

OTOH, for the past year or two I’ve been reserving a ride, invariably Lyft because it’s always less expensive, a day or two in advance. No last-minute cancellations and every single time, the driver has arrived between 3 and 15 minutes early and I was successful in editing the fare slightly (5 minute different pick up time or different airline at the same terminal) 1-5 different times, to a cost FAR less than that paid in the past when calling the ride when I was ready for pickup.

Perfect example, few days ago, southern Westchester County to JFK. Reservation 2 days prior Uber showed $120, Lyft showed $99. Booked Lyft, edited to a different airline in the same JFK terminal 4–5 times over the next day or 2: $99 to $68 to $62 to $58 to $54. (Perfect for a cheapskate gambler like me :D who loathes feeling like I’ve been ripped off, it’s entertaining and frugal, and sometimes, like the last two prices, very pleasantly surprising :tu: :).)

Oh yeah, rideshare prices to the airports have always been less expensive than local taxi companies, and since COVID (when many NYC airport parking lots closed or doubled their prices) WAY less expensive than parking at the airports. Prior to making rideshare reservations fares were ~25% less expensive, nowadays probably 40% less expensive.

Did you check a one-way rental car price from southern Westchester to the NYC airports, or did you just prefer to be driven and dropped off? That could avoid the chronic unreliability issues.

(You’re obviously not familiar with my FT posting habits. Ask me a question and I’ll (almost) always answer, invariably with way TMI :D:D.)

No, I’ve never even thought for a moment about a one-way car rental, especially not the past few years. Maybe you didn’t understand that I was writing about rides to LGA and JFK from my home.

I bought my first smartphone ~6 months prior to COVID shutdowns in March 2020. Prior to that I had used Uber (with difficulty) a few times via an iPad and a separate flip-phone. Prior to COVID, for a short trip I’d usually drive myself to LGA or JFK and park (and take a shuttle bus to and from the parking lot). For a long trip (>4-5 days) using a local taxi company to the airport and a yellow NYC cab home was less expensive than parking. I live close to the city limit so double the meter outside the Citi city only cost me an extra dollar or two. I’d do the same thing for even a short trip with skis and suitcase for the convenience.

During COVID many NYC airport parking lots closed permanently and those that didn’t close raised their rates significantly, in some cases doubling. It didn’t take me long after COVID to realize how convenient and inexpensive ride shares were.

So main reason I use rideshares to and from the airports is cost, but also very importantly convenience and no stress of driving and no concern for my car being stolen or broken into while parked at the airport.

I never considered a one-way car rental, there’s no car rental facility near my home and dropping off a car and getting to LGA or JFK is a very time-consuming process. And in the past few years, with reports of people being arrested for extending their car rental and rental car AI scans charging people $500 for a preexisting scratch, and the usual convenience and low cost of rideshares, I abhor even the thought of renting a car.

Prior to COVID I probably rented a car 4–6 times per year. Since COVID I’ve rented a car exactly 3 times, every time a one-way rental: central Virginia Beach to ORF, LAX to SAN, PDX to SEA.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, from the frequent flyer nutjob (i.e. ME) point of view, I get more points and/or miles from rideshares than I used to get from car rentals.

(Now please apologize to all our fellow FTers, many of whom know better than to ask me a question :D:D.)